Biography

After graduating with a degree in zoology from Cardiff, I worked as a science teacher in the UK and Greece for some years before joining the British School at Athens as a research assistant in archaeological materials science at the Fitch Laboratory.

I returned to Britain in 1978 to undertake an MPhil, followed by a PhD, in Archaeology, at the University of Cambridge. I then worked as an environmental archaeologist at the Department of Urban Archaeology, Museum of London, a post I left to take up my current position at the University of Sheffield in 1984.

Professional Roles

Member of the REF 2014 sub-panel for Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology.

Member of the ERC starting grant 2013 evaluation panel.

Member of the NERC Peer Review College.

Member of the Association for Environmental Archaeology.

Member of the British School at Athens Laboratory sub-committee.

Member of the editorial board of Journal of Archaeological Science.

British representative on the steering panel for the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP).

Research

Research interests

The origins and spread of agriculture

The investigation of crop domestication and spread through DNA analysis

Ecological approaches to crop domestication

The use of weed ecology in the identification of crop husbandry practices

Stable isotopes as a method for identifying the intensity of crop cultivation practices

Dating the spread of crops through Europe

The role of crop cultivation in the Neolithic to Iron Age in Britain/Europe

Ethnoarchaeological approaches to the investigation of early farming

Current research projects

Life in a cold climate: the adaptation of cereals to new environments (ERC project) with Prof. T. Brown, Dr. H. Jones and Dr. P. Pearman.

Jones, G. and Legge, A.G. 2008. Evaluating the role of cereal cultivation in the neolithic: charred plant remains from Hambledon Hill, in R. Mercer and F. Healy Hambledon Hill, Dorset, England. Excavation and Survey of a Neolithic Monument Complex and its Surrounding Landscape. English Heritage: 469-76.

Jones, G. and Rowley-Conwy, P. 2007. On the importance of cereal cultivation in the British Neolithic, in S. Colledge and J. Conolly (eds.) The Origins and Spread of Domestic Plants Southwest Asia and Europe. Left Coast Press: 391-419.

Jones, G., Bogaard, A., Halstead, P., Charles, M. and Smith, H 1999. Identifying the intensity of crop husbandry practices on the basis of weed floras. Annual of the British School at Athens 94: 167-89.

Bogaard, A., Palmer, C., Charles, M. and JHodgson, J.G. 1999. A FIBS approach to the use of weed ecology for the archaeobotanical recognition of crop rotation regimes. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 1211-24.